1944 St. Louis Browns season

Offseason

• February 17, 1944: Frankie Hayes was traded by the Browns to the Philadelphia Athletics for Sam Zoldak and Barney Lutz (minors).
• Prior to 1944 season: Owen Friend was signed as an amateur free agent by the Browns.

Regular season

The Browns were one of the unlikeliest pennant-winners in history, failing to contend in nine of the previous 10 seasons.

However, 1944 marked the peak of wartime conditions in Major League Baseball. The shortage of available players degraded the talent level of both major leagues, benefiting the 1944 Browns who were relatively untouched by the military draft. Nine players were at least 34 years old and the all-4F infield included 23-year-old shortstop Vern Stephens, who led the league in RBI (109) and was second in home runs (20).

St. Louis started the season with nine straight wins and continued to contend in a four-team race with Detroit, Boston, and New York. It came down to the final week, when the Browns defeated the Yankees five times, winning the pennant by a game over Detroit. It was the only championship the franchise won in St. Louis. Nine years later, after the 1953 season, the Browns were sold and became the Baltimore Orioles.

Season chronology

• May 26, 1944: In a game against the Boston Red Sox, Nels Potter retired the first 23 batters and was on his way to pitching a perfect game when Jim Tabor got a hit in the 8th inning.
• June 15, 1944: Frank Demaree was released by the Browns.
• July 20, 1944: Nels Potter took to the hill against Yankees' pitcher Hank Borowy. The Yankees third base coach Art Fletcher noticed that Potter was moistening his fingers. After Browns manager Luke Sewell consulted with Potter, Potter proceeded to make a deliberate motion with his fingers to his mouth. Umpire Cal Hubbard ejected Potter from the game. On July 22, American League President Will Harridge suspended Potter for 10 days for throwing an illegal pitch. Potter was the first pitcher to be suspended by Major League Baseball for that reason.
• Every team in the league hosted a game where net proceeds went toward the National War Relief and Service Inc. On July 26, the second game versus the Philadelphia Athletics was that game. Everyone had to pay their way into the stadium including team management, umpires and players. The crowd of 24,631 was the greatest for a Browns home game since the team's first night game in 1940. Oscar Zahner, chairman of the benefit game committee, announced that $25,000 was raised.
• On August 3, the Browns played the minor league Kansas City Blues. The Browns lost the game by a score of 9–8. The attendance was 5,965, which was Kansas City's best attendance all season. Despite losing, the Browns got 14 hits and Gene Moore went 4–5 with three runs batted in.
• August 8 marked the Browns 70th consecutive day in first place. This broke the club's previous record of 69 days in first place, which had been set in 1922.
• The Browns beat the New York Yankees on August 12. It marked the first four-game series victory over the Yankees since 1940.
• Browns pitcher Nels Potter and Washington player George Case got into an altercation on August 22. The result was a bench clearing brawl and Potter, Case, and Washington player Ed Butka were ejected.
• On September 4, the Browns found themselves out of first place. The Browns slipped to a half game behind the New York Yankees with 22 games left.
• The final series between the Browns and the Senators had its share of tension. In the first game of the series, Senators pitcher Roger Wolff hit Vern Stephens with a pitch. Browns manager Luke Sewell waved a bat in the direction of the pitcher.
• September 21 was the final game between the Browns and the Senators. Browns catcher Tom Turner engaged in a fist fight with Senators player Roberto Ortiz. The two players lined up in a boxing formation in the middle of the field. Ortiz broke his hand and this was bad for the Browns as the Senators were finishing the season against the Detroit Tigers. At the time of the Browns-Senators game, the Tigers were in first place. The conflicts strained the friendship of Washington manager Ossie Bluege and Luke Sewell. The two were teammates in Washington from 1933 to 1934.
• After the Browns farm team, the Toledo Mud Hens was eliminated from the American Association, the Browns called three players to bolster their team for their stretch run. The callups were Earl Jones (10–6 for the Mudhens), infielder Len Schulte (.296 batting average, 96 RBI's), and outfielder Babe Martin, the American Association Most Valuable Player.
• With six games left in the season, the Browns and Tigers had identical 84–64 records. The last six games of the season for the Browns were against the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.
• At the start of play on the very last day of the season (October 1), the Browns and Tigers were still tied with identical 88-65 records. The Tigers, playing Washington at home, had an earlier start time for their game, and fell to the Senators 4–1. Just moments after the Browns had pulled into a 2–2 tie in the fourth on a 2-run homer by Chet Laabs, word reached the St. Louis ball park that Detroit had lost. This meant a Browns victory could clinch the pennant. In the bottom of the fifth, Laabs hit another 2-run shot to put the Browns ahead. Vern Stephens hit a solo homer to lead off the eighth for the Browns, who hung on for the last 2 innings to beat the Yankees 5–2, and win the 1944 AL championship.

Opening Day lineup

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Roster

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

• Tied with Joe Berry and Gordon Maltzberger

1944 World Series

Main article: 1944 World Series

NL St. Louis Cardinals (4) vs. AL St. Louis Browns (2)

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

• George McQuinn, starter
• Vern Stephens, starter
• Bob Muncrief, reserve

League leaders

• Frank Mancuso, Most errors in a season by a catcher (17)

Team leaders

• Home runs – Vern Stephens (20)
• RBI – Vern Stephens (109)
• Batting average – Mike Kreevich (.301)
• Hits – Vern Stephens (164)
• Stolen bases – Don Gutteridge (20)
• Wins – Nels Potter (19)
• Earned run average – Jack Kramer (2.49)
• Strikeouts – Jack Kramer (124)

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Newark

References

References

1. [https://www.baseball-reference.com/z/zoldasa01.shtml Sam Zoldak page at Baseball Reference]
2. [https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/frienow01.shtml Owen Friend page at Baseball Reference]
3. ''As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns'', p. 49, David Alan Heller, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2003, {{ISBN. 0-7385-3199-5
4. As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, p. 65
5. As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, p. 70
6. As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, p. 78
7. As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, p. 79
8. As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, p. 83
9. As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, p. 89
10. As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, p. 95
11. As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, p. 96
12. As Good As It Got, The 1944 St. Louis Browns, p.97
13. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., ''The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball''. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997